One prior art method for installing cabin wall panels consists in fixing a U-shaped channel bottom rails to the deck, inserting the bottom edges of the wall panels into these rails and then capping the top edges of the wall panels with an inverted U-shaped channel top rails bearing on the top edges of the panels.
The top rails have a simple inverted U-shaped channel and form a support structure for a ceiling made up of juxtaposed slats.
In the above installation method, the ceiling slats are installed last because they are fixed to the top rails which in turn rest on the vertical wall panels.
This order of installation, whereby the wall panels are installed before the ceiling and its support structure, i.e. the top rails, is open to improvement. The wall panels have already been decorated when they are installed and might therefore be damaged or soiled when fitting the ceiling slats and also the trunking, pipes, and cables which run above the ceiling and which are installed before the ceiling is completed. Also, replacing a wall panel necessitates major dismantling of ceiling slats and top rails.
Another method that is used consists in first fixing the U-shaped channel bottom rails to the deck, as previously, and then pre-installing the inverted U-shaped channel top rails by suspending them on metal suspension members from the deck above. The wall panels are then inserted into the top rails and allowed to drop into the bottom rails, sufficient distance being provided between the top and bottom rails when pre-installing the top rails that are suspended by said metal suspension members.
That method has the important advantage of the wall panels being installed last, when there is no longer any risk of them being damaged by handling other materials in their surroundings.
In particular, all trunking and cables are installed above the ceiling and the ceiling slats are installed beforehand, which is possible because they are fixed to the top rails which are pre-installed by being suspended on the metal suspension members from the deck above.
Another advantage is that it is easy to dismantle a panel because its top rail is not resting on it and so it can be disengaged from the rail to dismantle it in the same way as it was inserted in the rail when it was installed.
On the other hand, pre-installing the top rails is time-consuming and the suspension members require many welds; the suspension members also have the drawback of constituting sound conducting bridges and connections to the cabins which transmit strains in the ship's structure to the cabins.